Silko's First Novel “ceremony“

2 Pages 535 Words

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, the gender roles of three women are significant to the development of Tayo as being half-white and half-Indian. These three women are Tayo's birth mother, Auntie, and Old Grandma. His mother left him when he was four years old and that began his sense of emptiness and abandonment. She could not bear to raise a child that brought the reservation shame by her mistake. Auntie raised Tayo and was the mother figure he lacked. She willingly accepted to take him, but only to "conceal the shame of her younger sister (29)". Auntie was always hesitant toward Tayo as he was not her real son and was also a half-breed. For Tayo, this only added to his feeling of displacement and emptiness. She would give her affection and attention to her real son Rocky, but would let Tayo just sit there alone. After the war Auntie nursed him because he was all she had left after Rocky got killed. He would wake up crying after dreaming about how much Josiah had loved him ! and always hugged him when he was a child (32). Now he realized that there was no place left for him and he would never find peace (32). Auntie may have been a mother figure to him, but to Tayo she was just someone who looked after him. Old Grandma, unlike Auntie, does accept Tayo and wants what is best for him. When Auntie rejected the idea of a medicine doctor because he's not "full blood", Old Grandma got angry and said that he was her grandson and why should she care what they say anyway (33). She has been around for many years and doesn't worry about what other people will say about Tayo or about their family. The significance of Montano to Ceremony is very powerful and vital to the recovery of Tayo. She lives up in the rim rock and is in touch with the earth and her surroundings in every way. Being torn between the white world and the Indian world is what leaves Tayo feeling invisible and hollow inside. Montano helps him to become more in touch with his Ind...